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Guests salute Arbor Day at planting at Tito’s Tacos. Photos by David Klingsick.
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City Councilman Jim Clarke and School Board member Nancy Goldberg.
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In perhaps the most hostile of worldwide times since dinosaurs were in charge of the planet, a brief timeout for the tender, beautifully uncomplicated act of planting a baby tree mere feet from one of the busiest intersections in the region is an appealing act that should trigger the relief app in all of our DNAs.
Streetside at a lovely wedding ceremony this morning at the start of the 141st Arbor Day, Coincidence and Irony pledged their troth as strands of hometown history were united in environmental wedlock on the west side of Tito’s Tacos, one of Culver City’s legendary eateries for the past 55 years.
Members of the city’s Public Works Dept. served as participating witnesses at the marriage of history with contemporary times.
Not incidentally, the knot was tied by Wirt Morton, husband of the owner of wildly popular Tito’s, and great-great grandson of J. Sterling Morton, founder of Arbor Day in 1874.
While Steven Orozco, Public Works’ maintenance operations manager, explained before the exchange of wedding boughs that this was one of more than 100 trees planted across the community each year, surely it will be the most memorable.
Mr. Orozco said he wished that his workers could be planting multiples more. “I am a tree lover, a certified arborist,” he said.
“The number we plant each year is determined economically, by projects that come up, by trees that failed, trees that are diseased that we have to remove. Of course we try to expedite the replanting and replacing of those trees,” Mr. Orozco said.
Expansion Is the Objective
“You always want to expand your city’s tree canopy. Trees are very beneficial to the environment. Increasing that canopy would be optimal for the city.”
Culver City’s reputation as a community of trees is spread across Southern California.
Mariachi music was flowing liltingly in the background, entertaining a crowd of City Hall-types and others. Mini-tacos and pastries were served at this special outing with an appropriate historical pastiche.
Mr. Morton firmly entrenched the tone of Arbor Day in his remarks.
“As the great-great grandson of J. Sterling Morton, I must say that Arbor Day resonates perhaps even more than in the late 1800s when J. Sterling Morton, moved west to Nebraska. He became editor-in-chief of a territorial hometown newspaper, the Nebraska City News.
“Back then, newspapers published west of the Mississippi River were circulated throughout the eastern United States as economic development vehicles to entice Easterners to move out West.
“J. Sterling Morton did just that in his newspaper, touting Nebraska as the ideal place to move. He said local residents were an ‘industrious, intelligent population.’ He said the soil was richly fertile for growing all sorts of crops.
“There was a major problem looming,” Mr. Morton told the Tito’s gathering. “The barren Midwestern plains had too few trees to provide for the expected onslaught of newcomers. They would need wood to build their homes, fuel to warm their homesteads, windbreaks to protect newly planted crops, fruit to satisfy their hunger, shade to make summer picnics more enjoyable.”
Galloping to a climax, Mr. Morton said that his great-great grandfather’s panacea was to create Arbor Day, setting aside a single day each year for planting trees.
“On the first Arbor Day, 1874, Nebraskans planted more than one million trees,” Mr. Morton said. “This literally transformed their barren plains into a sustainable environment where arriving pioneers family thrived.
“As my great-great grandfather said at the first celebration, ‘Other holidays repose upon the past. Arbor Day proposes for the future.’”
